1 Peter 1. Thank you, Stephen. We pray that the Lord would call
someone, and I do too. I pray He'll call you, call me. His Word is His power. This is
how He speaks. And He has to give us ears to
hear it. My mother, I gave her hearing
this morning. I gave her my hearing aids. I
put them in her ears to ensure that she can hear this morning. She can't hear without them.
Our Lord is the only one that can give. He who made the ear
is the only one that can make it hear. So I do pray that He
will open our ears. We hear, our Lord said, anytime,
having ears to hear, they don't hear. I ask to see. 1 Peter 1, what an amazing passage
this is, verses 10 through 12. Read these with me. 1 Peter 1,
10 through 12. Speaking of salvation of our
souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched
diligently, who prophesied of the grace That should come unto
you, God's people, believers. Searching what, or what manner
of time, the Spirit of Christ that was in them. You know, some
in religion, especially Pentecostal, say the Holy Spirit wasn't given
until Acts. That's just not true, is it?
Here it says they had the Spirit of Christ in them, so what did
they do? They preached Christ. And the Spirit signified, verse
11, when it testified beforehand, the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. That's the gospel in it. That
is what the Holy Spirit puts in every prophet, every preacher,
every believer. causes him to know and believe
and look to Christ and Him crucified. That's glory. It's glory to know
Him. Verse 12, unto whom the prophecy
was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister
the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached
the gospel unto you. You see what the Lord uses? Always. He always has. Hebrews said that
the gospel was preached unto the Jews in the wilderness, doesn't
it? This is what the Lord uses, it's
His power. The gospel is preached unto you
with the Holy Ghost, sent down from heaven. Which things? The
suffering of Christ, the glory of Christ, the angels' desire
to look into it. So the prophets, this is the
title in the text and subject, what the prophets inquire and
what the angels desire. What the prophets preached and
desired and inquired diligently, looked into, studied diligently,
and asked the Lord to reveal to them Christ crucified, when
he should come, and what angels desire, want to know. Look into
it. Angels. Think about that. Now what does this say about
man, his depravity? That the angels who saw God make
the heavens and earth, their desire to look into this one
thing, that man, God's not in any of his thoughts
and care. That's the greatest proof of
depravity of all. And because of that, because
they were not thankful, Romans 1, not thankful, don't acknowledge
God, they have lots of thoughts, but God's not in them. They're
not interested, not thankful, don't give Him glory, so God
gave them over. And their minds are gone. If
the creature won't acknowledge his creator, the one who feeds
him, the one who gives him life, then the creator is leaving bed
like a mad dog waiting to be extinguished. But God is not
mocked. I need to write an article on
that. God's not mocked. Men may mock Him, they scoff
at Him, laugh at Him, but He's not mocked. He has the last laugh. This is why if you know God, if you think about God, if you
need Jesus Christ, if you see the wisdom, the glory, the mercy,
the grace of God in Christ, you are so blessed. Just like Mary,
the mother of our Lord, they said, I am highly favored among
women. You are highly favored. Christ
has been formed in you. The hope of glory. You see His
glory. You see no glory anywhere else.
It's like seeing the sun for the first time. That's exactly
what Peter wrote. Until the day's star arises in
your heart. Until it dawns on you. Until
He does. Oh, how blessed we are. This
is why God's sovereign mercy and grace is so amazing, that
he would choose. He has to choose. He has to reveal
himself. He has to set his love on some
of these unlovely creatures. He has to call them out of darkness.
He has to give them eyes. He has to give them ears. Election? This is salvation. If he didn't
do that, it would be... Man has fallen below the beasts. The birds sing unto their Creator. The trees, inanimate, clap their
hands. Well, verse 9 says God's people
that have been given this precious faith, that's what Peter called
it, Given this precious faith, they're going to receive the
end, the goal, the purpose, the reason they've been given faith
is the salvation of their souls. The soul. What will a man give
in exchange for his soul? Well, a dead man will give anything.
He doesn't think about his soul. He doesn't think he has one.
He thinks when this is it, this is it. We're just like animals,
you know. You die, and that's it. So let's
grab all the gusto we can right now. Well, that's what Paul wrote
in 1 Corinthians 15. If we only have hope in Christ
in this life, we're of all men most miserable. Let's eat and
drink. Tomorrow we die. But no. There's something after this.
How do you know? Jesus Christ. He rose from the
grave. The end of our faith is the salvation
of our souls, while for many it's the damnation of their soul. Think about it. We'll be laughing,
God's people laughing, singing, dancing, joy unspeakable, while
many weeping, wailing, and gnashing their teeth. Alright, this is what the prophets
inquired. Thought about, searched, asked,
studied. You know, men and women study
so many things. You know what God calls it all?
Foolishness. The wisdom of this world. But
preacher, there have been many strides made. Look at all the
technology. Yeah, look at it. I wish we didn't
have it. Except for the preaching of the
gospel. Huh? That's why it was created. You
hear me? That's why TVs and radio and
airwaves were created, for the preaching of the gospel, for
the furthest of his kingdom. It's the only reason. That's
it. Not to make people happy, you
know, convenient. Or am I? The prophets inquired and searched
diligently. Not man. But the angels, angels
look into it. Now let's look at this. All right? It says in verse 10, "...the
prophets inquired and searched diligently and prophesied of
the grace that should come unto us, speaking of Jesus Christ,
the Spirit of Christ in them, testified of the sufferings of
Christ and His glory." That's what this whole book, or rather
who this whole book is about. Okay? Our Lord said that. He
said, They are they which testify of me. That's what Christ said.
The prophet. He said, you search the scriptures.
He said this to some religious people. You search the scripture,
and in them you think you have life. You think if you do what
it says, you'll have life. That's what the rich young ruler
thought, didn't he? What good thing must I do to
inherit eternal life? He said, to keep alive. That's
impossible. Only one person ever lived to
keep alive. And that's why I came. Well, it said, in them you think
you have life, but they are they which testify of me, the giver
of life, the restorer of life, one who quickens dead sinners,
only one. In Acts, the apostle said to him, Christ,
give all the prophets witness, all of them, every single one
of them, gave witness of Christ. And when our Lord arose from
the grave and was walking along and disguised himself as a preacher,
he was preaching to two disciples. And it says, beginning at Moses
and all the prophets. Expanded unto them the things
concerning himself. Moses, he began at Moses. All
right, let's begin at Moses, okay? Exodus 33. Where could we go to begin with
Moses? Oh, my. How about the burning bush? That's
where Moses met the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I'm going to
go see this site. The bush burns is not concerning. And he stood
before that burning bush. Take your shoes off. He took
his shoes off on holy ground. A bush that burns is not consumed.
What's that? Jesus Christ is crucified. That's
where he met the Lord. He spoke to him. He said, I am
that I am, Moses. Well, if you go on about Exodus
12, the Passover, I'm getting chills. It's not the air conditioning. Isn't it wonderful? Don't you
love this? These things revealed in Exodus
12, the Passover lamb, Moses. And when all that was over, Moses,
the blood on the doorpost of the Lord, he knew, didn't he? He knew this was speaking of
the Christ, the Lamb slain, who is to come. And he said, Lord,
when? When is he coming? When are you going to take us
out of here? In Exodus 33, I need to turn there myself, this is
the culmination of it all that he'd seen so much. And Moses
said, Lord, Exodus 33, if I found grace in your sight, verse 17, verse 18, he said, I beseech
thee, show me thy glory. Show me, Lord, thy glory. He saw the Red Sea parting. I
want to see your essential glory. Who you are. And here's what
the Lord said. Read it. I'll make all my goodness
pass before them. You know what all the goodness
of God is? You know where it's all found? In one person. Jesus
Christ. Good news. The gospel. Good news. Goodness. Good news is Jesus
Christ in Him. He said, I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee. Who is he? The Lord Jesus Christ. And will be gracious. It prophesied
of the gracious to come to whom I will be gracious. Sovereign
grace. I will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. Whose will is it? And he said, Thou canst not see
my face, for there shall no man see me and live. Now, that's
the eternal God, the holy God, the God whose Spirit, this is
before God, was manifest in the flesh, okay? You can't see me.
But, John, we have seen his face. Moses thought, I want to see
your face. No, you have to see my backside. The Lord said, There's a place
by me. And thou shalt stand upon a rock,
and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, I will put
thee in the rock." The cleft of the rock. Cleft of the rock. So you're going, Moses, you're
going to see my glory, my goodness, my name, everything. You're going
to stand on the rock, and you're going to be in the rock. Now
what is that? There's not a person in here
that couldn't stand up right now and preach a brief message
on that. That rock is Christ. Even our
little children downstairs know that. Do you know how few people
know that in this world, in this religious world? Do you know
how few people care? Moses did. He inquired diligently. It'll
come to pass, verse 22, while my glory passes by, I'll put
you in the cleft of the rock and will cover thee. Cover! You with me? Come on now. Forget
everybody and everything else. Forget it. Ain't worth thinking
about. This is what the prophets diligently
inquired into. I'm gonna cover you. Cover you
with my hand. I pass by. Like Exodus 12, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. If you're in the rock, I'm
going to cover you. Oh, we can go on and on. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
Moses wrote me. He said, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw
it and he was glad. Well, there's Moses. I could
go on to Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the cities of repute,
on and on. And how many prophets? Joshua?
Oh, Joshua. Samuel? David was a prophet. Solomon was a prophet. Elijah?
Let's look at Elijah now. We don't have time. Elisha. These prophets raised the dead.
Isaiah. Let's look at Isaiah. Let's do
that. Isaiah is quoted more than any other prophet from the Old
Testament. Isaiah, where do we go? I know you're thinking chapter
53. I know that. We'll get there. Isaiah 6. Let's go there. This is where Isaiah saw the
Lord. Isaiah 6. If you've never heard
this preached on, oh my. Isaiah 6, oh how blessed we are,
we've heard message after message after message. Isaiah verse 1, I saw the Lord
sitting on a throne high and lifted up. This is, who is it?
The Lord Jesus Christ. The only God men have ever seen
is Jesus Christ. His train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face in humility. With twain he covered
his feet in modesty. With twain he did fly with the
message. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. That's his chief
glory and that's his chief attribute. Describe God supremely, preeminently
with one word. Describe holy. But the word basically made unlike
any other. There's nothing like it. His
love is holy. His everything is holy. The whole
earth is full of his glory. The post of the door moved at
the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, when you see the Lord high and lifted
up, seated on his throne, holy Lord, what will you say about
yourself? Without exception, every single person that sees
the Lord Jesus cry, I'm not talking about Jesus standing outside.
No, no, that's another one. Ain't the right one. Don't let
him in the door. Don't answer the call. When Christ
comes calling him, Break down your door, and He will come in. And you'll behold His glory,
and you'll hit your knees, and you'll say, Woe is me. That's
what Simon Peter did when he found out who this is, the master
of the sea, who calls fish, numbers fish. And whoever thought Peter
hadn't his head, he hid his knees and said, I'm a sinful man. Fear of the Lord. That's the
beginning. Lord Jesus Christ. That's who
I'm talking about. That's who Isaiah saw. Isaiah wrote of me,
Christ, when he saw my glory. He said, I'm in the midst of
a people of unclean lips. Mine eyes have seen the King.
Who's the King? Jesus Christ, King of kings,
Lord of lords. And then he goes on to say, Make the people's ears heavy
and shut their eyes. Preach to them that they're not
going to hear you and they're not going to believe you. They're
not going to see my glory. And Isaiah said in verse 11,
he said, Lord, how long? When? How long is this going
to last? See, he inquired diligently. And the Lord went on to say,
there will be a tenth. The holy seed will be the substance.
There will be a remnant. whom I choose and will make my
glory known unto them. And here we are. A little remnant. Isaiah 53. What about that? Isaiah
52. Did Isaiah know of whom he was
writing? Do you remember the eunuch? He
said to Philip, of whom does the prophet write? Himself or
some other man? Isaiah knew some other man. When
he wrote Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He had
the anointed knee to preach and to give eyes to the blind. It
wasn't him. He knew he couldn't give eyes
to anybody. He knew that. He was speaking of someone else,
not speaking of himself. He was speaking of someone else.
Isaiah 52, his visage was marred more than any man. He was sprinkled
many nations. Isaiah 53, grow up as a tinder
plant, as a root out of dry ground. By his stripes were he healed,
wounded for our transgression. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. God's going to give him a portion
of the grain. Who's he speaking of? Jesus Christ. Isaiah says,
Lord, when? When? He says, not in your day. It will be the latter day. The
latter day. What about Jeremiah? Oh, Jeremiah
wrote, this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. Jehovah Sidkenu. That's what Jeremiah wrote. He
knew, didn't he? The Lord our righteousness. Isaiah
knew that, didn't he? Ours are filthy rags, he said.
Surely shall one say, Isaiah said, in the Lord have I righteousness. Isaiah did. And he saw his glory. Jeremiah did. And he saw his
glory. Ezekiel did. I was going to have
you turn to Ezekiel. What about the great shepherd?
Well, the Lord told Ezekiel, I am the great shepherd. I will
gather my sheep. There will be one fold and one
shepherd. I will do that. Ezekiel knew
who he was speaking of. And he said, when, Lord? When is this going to happen?
It's not for you to know. It's going to be later. The latter
day. The latter day. What about Daniel?
I wanted to turn to Daniel. What about Daniel? Daniel said, he said, I prayed
and fasted and sought the Lord. Lord, when? Tell me. And he gave that great vision
of Christ in chapter 9. Putting an end to the transgression. When, Lord? The latter day. All right, go back. Are you in
1 Peter? Look, 1 Peter 1. So the Spirit of Christ was in
them, and that's of whom the Spirit speaks, always has, always
does. What does that say about all
these false prophets today who speak of anything and everything
but Christ crucified? They don't know. They haven't
seen His glory. And they're not God's prophets. That's how you
knew the prophets of old and that's how you knew the ones
in the New Testament. All right, verse 11, it says,
when they testify to the sufferings of Christ and the glory that
should follow. This is the heart and soul of
the gospel. It is the gospel. When our Lord
preached to those disciples on the road to Emmaus, he said,
O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken. What? Ought not Christ to have
suffered these things and to enter into His glory? That's
what Christ preached to two disciples. He preached Himself. And beginning
at Moses and all the prophets, He preached to them. And boy,
were there hearts of iron. Oh, man. Christ came to suffer. That's why Jesus Christ came
to suffer. He didn't come to change the
earth. He didn't come to save the earth. He came to save his
people. From what? Their sins. By being
made an offering, a burnt offering to God. Not man, he didn't offer
himself to man, he offered himself to God. By one offering, he had
perfected forever. Them that are sanctified, set
apart by the Holy Spirit, by the preaching of the gospel,
they see that Christ is their burnt offering. their sacrifice. He suffered the just and the
unjust to bring us to God. That's why He came, to suffer
for us the wrath of God, the punishment due to death, the
wages of sin is death. Christ earned righteousness.
Christ brought in an everlasting righteousness. Who? For Himself?
No, He didn't need it. We did. And we earn, what we
earn is death. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. Death. So Christ died. Was made sin. God laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. And God killed His Son in my
stead. And the sins are gone. They're
painful. Painful. Punishment. Justice
has been rendered. He suffered for us. And he suffered
with us. Christ came in this world of
suffering. That's what this world, that's
what we can expect in this world. Man is born of woman a few days
and is full of trouble, suffering, suffering. When the moment we're
born we experience pain and anguish and grief and we start crying
the moment we come into this world. And we cry until the day
we die. Why? Pain and sin and suffering
and grief and sorrow and sadness and trouble. That's just life
isn't it? All the days of our vanity. Suffering. Christ came to suffer
with us. We have not a high priest who
has not touched with the feeling of our suffering. He suffered
in all points. He suffered or allowed Satan
to tempt him. He didn't have to do that, but
he did. He went through everything. He took infirmities. He limited
himself. What he could do for himself.
He never provided anything for himself. He could have commanded
the stones we may break. No, no, no, no, no, no. The just
have to live by faith. He had to live by faith. So he
trusted God to provide every single thing for him. Live by
faith. Why? Because we don't. We have
to. He was tempted in all points.
Weakness. He who is almighty, omnipotent,
all-powerful became weak. Think about that. And it says, the glory that should
follow. The sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. From shame. When our Lord was
hanging on that cross and men were mocking Him, that was His
greatest glory. Men were mocking Him, but they're
not mocking Him. They're not mocking Him. This
was his greatest glory, brother. For him to hang there. Where
did he hang? For him to allow Pilate to stand in front of him
and say, don't you know I have power? For him not to say a word. There's power. There's glory. There's a man. Even Pilate said,
behold the man. I've never seen anybody like
him. Roman soldiers had seen many strong men cowed to their
brutality. Not this man, Wesley. plucked
his beard out, slapped him on the face. What did he do? He
turned the other cheek. What a man! God said, I'm well
pleased. And then when he willingly hung
on that cross and let them drive those nails in his hands and
his feet. Let them! They couldn't have
done it. And he hung on that cross. Had
to, John. He had to die. This is His greatest glory. Mockery. This is glory as never seen before. It's the glory of a man, Proverbs
said, to pass by a transgression. It's the glory of a man to condescend
to a worm and speak to him and elevate him to... It's His glory. And when all that was accomplished,
God wouldn't allow him to be buried in a common grave. Give
him the best burial. And a few days later, he's coming
out, buddy. He's coming out. And you're going to see Him ride
a cloud to glory and sit on the right hand of the Majesty on
high. Every eye is going to see His glory. This is glory. There is no glory apart from
this. Now, the sun pales in comparison to the S-O-N, Son of God. And we've seen a little bit of
this. This morning, you're hearing a little bit of this. Peter said,
we were on that mountain, and we beheld His majesty. We heard
a voice from heaven. John said, we beheld His glory
as of the only begotten of God, full of grace and truth. And
we have. Why? He said, open our ears,
open our eyes. People don't preach Christ. Men
don't preach Christ because they've never seen Him. People don't
want to hear about Christ because they've never heard His voice.
They've never seen His glory. They don't want to hear about
it. Tell me something else. Okay? There's a thousand places you
can go and hear something else and have fun with your family. But we need to see Jesus Christ. That's what our teachers are
teaching our children downstairs right now. Do you appreciate
that? Do you tell them so? This is it. He's it. And when
God brings in the last of the lead, it's over. It's over. Oh, thank God. Sovereign, revealing grace. Which things the angels desire
to look into. I'm going to devote another message
Wednesday night. We're going to look at what the angels desire
to look into, okay? I deserve a message all by itself. Have you seen his glory? A little
bit? How blessed you are. Okay.